SEAN COMBS - FOUR WITNESSES BACK COMBS' 'ASSAULT' CLAIMS

Four people have come forward to back a man's claims he was assaulted by SEAN COMBS at a post-Oscar party last year (07). The hip-hop star is accused of punching Gerard Rechnitzer in the jaw after the 27-year-old objected to Combs' attempts to woo his fiancee at a Roosevelt Hotel party on 25 February (07). The music mogul is now facing four eyewitness accounts backing Rechnitzer's claims. The witnesses gave their accounts in papers filed in a Los Angeles court on Wednesday (16Jan08) claiming Combs struck Rechnitzer in "an unprovoked fashion". One witness, Marianna Ruiz, said in a statement, "I just kind of remember seeing him go flying, not flying as in like feet off the ground, but he went back significantly. "I was just in shock that somebody would ... just kind of strike somebody out of nowhere." Rechnitzer seeks unspecified damages in the suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in March last year (07).